New Treatment for Drug-Resistant Swine Flu

Wednesday, September 9

A new and unlicensed treatment for swine flu could be used in patients who have Tamiflu-resistant viruses, doctors say.

In an article published Friday in the medical journal Lancet, British doctors describe how they used an intravenous form of the antiviral Relenza to treat a 22-year-old woman who had a severe case of swine flu. Relenza is usually inhaled via the nose, and is not licensed to be given intravenously.

nearly 1/3 of Indian population will get H1N1 ioenctifn in a matter of few months. Its prediction of death toll for India, in worst case scenario, is not more than 3000! [So the disease to death ratio becomes 300000:1]A health worker quipped the other day - A few hundreds died due to h1n1, and everybody is walking around with a stupid mask on their face, a few millions have died due to aids - but no one wears a condom!And that mask is useless, viruses travel in micro-aerosols which can easily pass through. Only a respirator [n95 masks] can prevent viral spread. And just because virus has entered ones system - it doesn't mean that he will develop flu. Even if a confirmed H1N1 patient breathes directly down the throats of some 100,000 people, not even a 100 of them may develop flu. Many doctors have claimed on the TV that if the patient is diagnosed and treated early and energetically - they can save his life. It is bullshit. There is no early treatment and there is no energetic treatment. No treatment is needed unless the patient develops respiratory problems - and when he does develop - no treatment may be enough. A ventilator and intensive pulmonary care in the best equipped hospital is the only hope.It looks ridiculous to see people, with their stupid masks, lined up outside dispensaries and middle-level hospitals. There is no viricidal drug. Even Tamiflu [Oseltamivir], at its best, can reduce the course of the disease by a day or two - nothing more. Even the latest drug, Relenza [Zanamivir] which is used as an inhaler- is only marginally better.What we can do then? Keep our natural immunity high. How? Vegetables, fruits and exercise. Drink enough water to flush out the toxins from our system. Stay a safe distance from doctors and dispensaries! [Nothing better than your sweet home as far as all these self-limiting seasonal viral episodes are concerned] Maintain high standards of personal hygiene. In fact we need to bathe more frequently when we run temperature. [It will bring down the need for metacin/ paracetamol] Take special care of those who are vulnerable - children, elderly, immuno-compromised and having concurrent ailments. Dr A Laxminarayana RaoMBBS; DOMS; MS:Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon,Koyili Hospital,CANNANORE-670004. Kerala State.INDIA.